If you're looking for a powerful way to highlight trends and shifts over time, area charts (or area graphs) provide a functional and compelling way to showcase your data. By filling in the space beneath the data line, area charts effectively highlight the peaks and valleys of your dataset, making it easier to interpret complex patterns. Whether you're tracking sales growth, analyzing app usage, or monitoring performance trends, area charts simplify complex data and make it easier to understand. With an area chart maker, you can create customized, professional area charts that make an impact.

Excelkits online area chart maker makes it simple to create, customize, and share interactive area charts from professionally designed themes. With real-time data syncing, widget embedding, and an intuitive interface, you can quickly build dynamic charts that highlight your insights and engage your audience.

What is an Area Chart?

An area chart is a variation of a classic line graph where the space beneath the line is filled with color. This data visualization spotlights the magnitude of change and emphasizes the area between data points and the x-axis more effectively than with standard line charts. In a classic area chart, each data series is plotted independently, and their areas overlap on the same axes.

This overlaying approach allows viewers to see how each individual series trends over time, but it doesn’t look at cumulative values. Instead, the focus is on the absolute values of each data series, showing the changes and differences between them while keeping the scale shared across all series. Area charts are particularly useful when you want to visualize individual trends while maintaining a sense of overall proportions.

What’s the Difference Between an Area Chart and a Stacked Area Chart?

Choosing between area charts and stacked area charts depends on how you want to represent your data. Area charts display overlapping areas, allowing you to see how individual data sets compare independently. This is a better choice when highlighting differences between groups or trends without combining their values.

On the flip side, stacked area charts combine multiple data sets into a cumulative visualization. They’re ideal for comparing individual contributions to a total, such as total revenue broken down by product categories. Both formats offer unique benefits, so selecting the right one depends on the type of insights you’re aiming to represent.

When to Use an Area Chart

Area charts excel in scenarios where you need to emphasize volume, trends, or contributions. They're particularly well-suited for:

• Website Traffic Analysis: Highlight trends in traffic sources (e.g., organic search, social media, direct visits) to emphasize overall website growth.
• Revenue Breakdown: Visualize revenue contributions from different regions or business units, while focusing on cumulative revenue growth.
• Task Distribution in Project Management: Visualize how different task categories contribute to overall workload distribution over a project's timeline.
• Financial Market Performance: Compare the performance of stocks over a certain time frame to compare the growth or decline trends between them.
• Energy Consumption: Showcase energy usage distribution across sectors (e.g., residential, commercial, industrial) and highlight total consumption growth over time.
• Social Media Engagement: Emphasize total engagement (likes, shares, comments) while showing how each metric contributes to overall trends.

However, keep in mind area charts are best used to compare limited data series, as too many overlapping areas can make the chart harder to interpret.

How to Create an Area Chart

Creating a professional area chart is easy with an area graph maker. Here's how to get started:

1. Choose Your Area Chart Maker

Select an online tool like Excelkits free area chart maker to ensure you have a comprehensive range of data input options and customizable features. Our tool supports formats like CSV and XLSX, making it easy to upload your data in seconds.

2. Input Your Data

Organize your data into columns to ensure that your categories and values are clearly segmented. You can then manually import the data into the area graph maker, upload a file, or connect directly to a live data source like Google Sheets, which will enable automatic updates.

3. Customize Your Chart

Personalize your chart by adjusting the colors, labels, and axis settings. You can customize your color palette to differentiate each segment to better align with key data points. With Excelkits interface, you can tailor every detail.

4. Download and Share Your Chart

Save your finished area chart as an image file (PNG or JPEG), embed it into reports or websites, or share it directly with stakeholders.

How to Make an Area Chart in Excel

Microsoft Excel is a popular tool for creating area charts. Follow these simple steps:

1. Enter your data in a spreadsheet, with categories in one column and values in adjacent columns.
2. Highlight your data, navigate to the "Insert" tab. You will see three chart options under the "Area" section. Select the first option, which is simply titled "Area Chart".
3. Customize your chart by modifying colors, axis labels, and titles.
4. Save or export the chart for use in presentations or reports.

How to Make an Area Chart in Google Sheets

Google Sheets provides another user-friendly option for creating area charts:

1. Enter your data, keeping categories and values in separate columns.
2. Highlight your data, click "Insert", and choose "Chart".
3. In the Chart Editor, scroll down to the section titled "Area". Here, you will see six different options. Select the first option, which is called "Area Chart".
4. Customize your chart’s colors, labels, and axis titles, then share or download it as needed.

Excelkits: Free Area Chart Maker

Excelkits provides a free area chart maker that's been designed to make the area graph creation process effortless. With features like color customization, real-time data syncing, and embeddable widgets, Excelkits simplifies complex data visualization.

By signing up for Excelkits ' free plan, you gain access to three embeddable widgets and up to 1,000 monthly views—perfect for those getting started with a new website or in the process of building their content bank. Premium plans unlock enhanced features like real-time Google Sheets integration, additional monthly views, and the ability to remove Excelkits branding for a more seamless user experience.

Start creating interactive, professional area charts today with Excelkits area graph maker, or explore premium plans for even greater functionality.